Choosing what schools to visit on a school tour

College Search & Selection
1

<p>My school has a college tour of the Northeast. Here are the schools that I can choose to go to. I have no idea how many schools I can go to, but I can assume that it is a fair amount. I'm personally leaning towards LACs, especially those with lots of students going on to good law schools, and good history programs. </p>

<p>Here's a brief rundown of my stats:</p>

<p>Gender: M
Location: CA
College Class Year: 2014
High School: Private
High School Type: sends many grads to top schools</p>

<p>Academics:</p>

<p>9th Grade: all normal classes, except French II, bio (bio and French are a mix of normal sophomores and talented freshmen) alg/geo honors, unweighted 3.6, 3.75, 3.85 (school has trimester system)
10th Grade: English Honors, AP World History, French 3, Geometry/Algebra 2 Honors, Chemistry, 3.88, 3.88, 3.98
11th Grade: English Honors, APUSH, French 4, Calc Honors, AP Chemistry, 4.1</p>

<p>It is important to note that mostly my grades are all mostly As except for math, unfortunately, as I get B-s, Bs, and B+s in that. It is also important to note the rising GPA, even as I take harder and harder classes. My schedule is one of the harder schedules, and my school requires students to petition to take more than 3 honors/AP classes a year.</p>

<p>Class Rank: top 20% (towards the bottom of the first quintile)
Class Size: 125</p>

<p>Scores:</p>

<p>(SAT is one sitting)
SAT I Math: 760
SAT I Critical Reading: 800
SAT I Writing: 730
SAT II World History: 800
AP World History: 5</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Athletic Status - list sport and your level: Tennis (Junior Varsity) Important to note that varsity team is best in league, winning the last 30ish years everytime. Often Top 10 in Northern California. As JV player, I sometimes play in varsity league matches.</p>

<p>Cost is not important.</p>

<p>Here is a list of the colleges I can choose from:</p>

<p>Amherst
Babson
Barnard
Bates
Bowdoin
Colby
Colby Sawyer
Connecticut College
Drew University
Emerson
Hampshire
Middlebury
Mt. Holyoke
Pace
Pratt Institute
Parsons New School
Eugene Lange New School
RISD
Smith
Trinity
Ursinus
Wellesley
Wheaton Williams</p>

<p>American
Bentley Brandeis
Brown
Columbia
Dartmouth
Fordham
George Washington
Georgetown
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
Lafayette
Lehigh
MIT
Penn
Princeton
St. Josephs
Tufts
Villanova
Yale
Wesleyan
Fairfield
Naval Academy</p>

<p>Boston College
Boston University
Northeastern
NYU
U Mass</p>

<p>The ones I have down so far that I'm interested in (though some, like Harvard is mostly because I've never been there and want to go there at least once in my life)</p>

<p>Amherst
Bowdoin
Middlebury
Williams
Brown
Columbia
Georgetown
Harvard
Penn
Princeton
Yale
Wesleyan
NYU
Dartmouth</p>

<p>Right now, I'm interested in the LACs above, as well as Yale and Dartmouth though my chances are slim at most of them (all reaches??).</p>

<p>I would like to visit at least two small, medium, and big schools, as well as at least two safeties, four matches, and a few reaches.</p>

<p>Thanks for sticking with such a long post. (Hey, I actually had to TYPE the thing!)</p>

2

<p>Your interested list is all reaches. Since you are male, that eliminates Mt. Holyoke, Wellesley, and Smith. Perhaps consider Connecticut College, Fordham, Northeastern, Trinity, Villanova, American and/or GWU–just tossing out names lower on the selectivity scale, as your current list isn’t focused (Wesleyan and Dartmouth?).</p>

3

<p>Yeah, I figured that my list is basically all reaches (duh, yale?) and yeah, I understand the differences between a LAC and say, Harvard, but keep in mind some of those are ones I just want to go to once in my lifetime. Thanks for the suggestions though? Though this isn’t a chance thread, what do you think a school like Bowdoin is for me? A reach? a high match? And can someone recommend some more schools from the first section (small schools, if you haven’t figured it out)?</p>

4

<p>P.S. Wesleyan also belongs in the LACs category.</p>

5

<p>Are you seriously considering both Williams and NYU?
Georgetown and Wesleyan?</p>

<p>If you’re not sure whether you want a liberal v. conservative or rural v. urban campus, you should make it a point to visit one of each and figure out which atmosphere you like better. If you already have preferences… you need to do some research and seriously trim your list before tacking on some safeties.</p>

6

<p>@ lookbeyond: I’m only going to NYU to visit (like a tourist, lol). Same thing with Georgetown…</p>

<p>Also, I am a Libertarian so I don’t really care too much about liberal v. conservative.</p>

<p>Part of the reason I am going to different schools is that I want to find some stuff about myself like whether I would prefer a rural, suburban, or urban campus, etc. Therefore, I have different examples of schools. This is exactly what I WANT. Are there any other good examples of different kinds of schools that I missed?</p>

<p>Personally, so far, I’m leaning towards LACs, and thus smaller schools, generally in exurban and suburban settings…but I haven’t made up my mind yet. Therefore, I’m trying to get a disproportionately large amount of LACs in my visit list, but I still want some other types of schools.</p>

<p>@Keilexandra: Thanks! The three sections I posted were organized how my GC did it. Therefore there isn’t a distinct LAC section. Just small, medium, big…</p>

7

<p>lookbeyond - I’d say it’s good to visit schools that are very different, as it gives you an idea of what you want</p>

8

<p>I’m glad that you’re trying out different kinds of schools. Otherwise you’d have some serious research ahead of you. :)</p>

<p>You might want to check out Fordham. I hear positive reviews of their history department, and the Jesuit-ness of the school makes it a lot different from what you’d expect from a Catholic university. Plus, you appear to be fond of NY, and Fordham’s right there, so.</p>

<p>[Also, on a more general note, if you like Midd/Wesleyan, check out Vassar! Poughkeepsie is kind of a dump, but campus is awesome and NYC is only a train ride away.]</p>